ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8990, 27 November 1907, Page 7

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

There f>-e few curves of less than of a mile upon railways. railways curves sharper-than of ten chains are rare. Tobacco smoking, particularly cigars and cigarettes, is becoming increasingly popular in China. At the Skerryvore lighthouse a force of wind of nearly three tons to the square foot h2S been registered. In parts of Siberia the soil freezes each winter to a depth of sixty-four feet. Arabs never eat fish. Austria invented the postage stamp. There are three men to two women in the Sandwich Islands. The world produces 10,000 watches daily. • * Italy has 5,000,000 lemon trees. . London has forty vegetarian restaurants. A grasshopper can jump 200 times its own length. A piece of raw onion is almost as good as ammonia for relieving the '• pain of bse stings. There are altogether in Queensland 16,152 miles of public and private rabbit netted fences. Argentina has 245,000,000 acres of unoccupied land which is suitable for cattle grazing. In the reign of Henry 111. a judge's salary was £1 a year. A new drink called "Hiawatha" is being sold in Oklahoma, U.S.A. It consists of beer flavoured with peppermint, soda and rum. The employees at Woolwich Arsenal now number 8,000, as compared with over 20,000 in 1901. A penny-in-the-slot machine for thsupply of milk has been set up in Westminster. A British agricultural labourer has made a claim under the Compensation Act for injury to his eye, caused by a cow swishing its tail. Every year lish wjrth £10,672,000 are landed by British boats. The authentic history of China •commenced 3,000 B.C. Printed musical notes were first used in 1473. The wheat crop of North-west Canada is worth at least ,£12,000,000 per annum. The largest wooden ship was probably that built by Ptolemy Philopater. It carried 4,000 rowers. Three hundred and twenty-two persons were murdered in Russia during March last. The first steam fire engine was constructed by Braitlnvaite in 1830, 4>ut the fire brigades for public service were not formed until about 1852.